Family Sunday: What Is a Biblical Family?

SERMON NOTES

Title: What is a Biblical Family?

We need desperately to understand what it means to have biblical functioning family because healthy families will help promote a healthy church.

The family is a microcosm of the church. If a church is filled with unhealthy families, that church itself will be unhealthy.

However, the individual family is the "genuine small group” within Victory Church! Each of our families constitute the small groups which make up Victory Church.

Important Question:

Is your home being the small discipleship group that it is supposed to be, or is it just the place where you live and interact like the world between Sunday services?

What is a Biblical Family?
The Bible outlines various positions, roles, and responsibilities within a family structure, emphasizing principles of love, respect, and mutual support.

Below are some of the basic Biblical family positions and their corresponding
roles and responsibilities:

1. HUSBAND
Role: Leadership, Love, Provision, Protection

Leadership: Husbands are called to lead their families.

Ephesians 5:23 "For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior."

Love: Husbands are to love their wives sacrificially, as Christ loved the church.

Ephesians 5:25 "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."

Provision and Protection:  Husbands should provide for and protect their families.

1 Timothy 5:8 "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

2. WIFE

Role: Support, Respect, Nurturing

Support and Respect: Wives are called to support and respect their husbands.

Ephesians 5:22-24 "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands."

Ephesians 5:33 "However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

Nurturing: Wives play a key role in nurturing the children and managing the household.

Titus 2:4-5 "And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled."

3. PARENTS

Role: Teaching, Discipline, Love

Teaching: Parents are responsible for teaching their children about God and His commandments.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

Discipline: They should discipline their children in a loving and fair manner.

Proverbs 13:24 "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him."

Ephesians 6:4 "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

Love: Parental love should mirror God's love, providing a secure and nurturing environment.

Colossians 3:21 "Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged."

4. CHILDREN

Role: Obedience, Honor, Learning

Obedience: Children are instructed to obey their parents.

Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

Honor: Children should honor and respect their parents.

Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."

Learning: Children should be open to learning and gaining wisdom from their parents.

Proverbs 1:8 "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching."

5. EXTENDED FAMILY

Role: Support, Care, Honor

Support and Care: Family members should support and care for one another, especially in times of need.

1 Timothy 5:4 "But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God."

Honor:  Respect for elders within the family is a significant principle in the Bible - (key verses that emphasize this value.

Leviticus 19:32 "You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord."

Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."

Proverbs 23:22 - "Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old."\

1 Timothy 5:1-2 "Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity."

These verses collectively teach the importance of respecting and honoring elders within the family and community, recognizing their wisdom, experience, and the role they play in guiding and nurturing younger generations.

Conclusion:
Is your home being the small discipleship group that it is supposed to be, or is it just the place where you live and interact like the world between Sunday services?

Have you accepted Christ as your Savior?